After We Fall

This was a wonderful story. Jack’s struggles are realistic and Margot came off strong yet feminine. I enjoyed seeing how their relationship came together and how she stood back and let Jack make the choice to change. Believable.

What an amazing romance!

I am not sure why it took me so long to finish this book. Maybe because I knew it was going to make me cry. But it was so worth it! Jack had been through so much and Margot felt like she hadn’t really lived her life. That is until she met Jack.

This was my first Melanie Harlow read and it did not disappoint! Omg this book and it’s deep feelings <— like tug on all your heartstrings. Jack is a very broody farmer with a chip on his shoulder the size of an island. When he meets “city girl “ Margot he does not like her and her visions for their struggling family farm. Sparks fly .... one thing less another ( after slot of sexual tension) . Can they both open overcome their differences and fall? You must read this book and find out why I made the hashtag #fuckafarmer.

I have been a fan of Melanie Harlow since I read FRENCHED back in 2014. I have read and enjoyed lots of her books, but never got around to reading her
AFTER WE FALL till now. What a mistake! I owned the book, but it was buried in my TBR list. It is so good and has all the feels! I lost sleep because I didn’t want to put it down.

Margot Thurber Lewis was a beautiful socialite, whose father was running to be a senator. She felt like she had everything she could want in life, but a man to love and him to love her back. She felt her time clock was ticking as she would be thirty in a year. The ex-boyfriend, that she had wasted three years of her life with, suddenly reappears. Now, he wants to marry her after his rejection of a year ago. He has a ring and everything. She had plenty of reasons to be leery of this man, and when she finds out just what a sleaze he really is, unfortunately, she loses her composure in a room full of donors to her father’s Senatorial campaign. She had thrown scones at her ex and his “new” fiancé, who was wearing the same ring he had tried to give to Margot just the night before. Margot left town to avoid the “scone affair” gossip. She left to do a PR assignment at Valentini Brothers Farm.

The Valentini Farm was owned by three brothers. The family was quickly won over with Margot and all her exciting ideas to promote their family run farm. That is except for the one brother Jack. He was a grieving ex-Army man who had lost his wife in a hit & run car accident. Jack was moody and rude to her, no matter how friendly, charming, and nice Margot had been to him. He had gorgeous looks, but losing his wife had left him broken, bitter and full of guilt. It was a huge mystery how there was such an explosive chemistry between the “city girl” and the “rough-around-the-edges” country guy. The physical connection didn’t give them any problem. The emotional writing in this book will make you feel heartbroken for this man who won’t let himself be happy or move on. Margot suffers so much sadness and tears from his unwillingness to just give her a chance. “I’m not looking for my first love. I’m looking for my last.” Thank Goodness, I didn’t give up with all the hopelessness and kept on reading till the HEA ending!

4 1/2 stars. Such a great story.

After causing a rather unladylike scene at a charity dinner involving her ex-boyfriend and a scone, Margot Thurber Lewiston decides to leave the city for a while and take a trip to the country on business, hired as a marketing manager for a farm that needs help drumming up business. But Jack Valentini, the delicious farmer who lives and works there doesn’t trust Margot, thinking she’s a spoiled, rich city girl who doesn’t know anything about running a farm and she isn’t too keen about his moody, uncouth behavior either in spite of being immensely drawn to him. But the more time they spend together, the more they learn about each other, and that sometimes opposites really do attract in the most passionate of ways.
As with all of Melanie Harlow’s books I fell absolutely in love with the story and her characters, especially Margot, the sweet and sassy heroine and Jack, the broody, swoon-worthy hero. A wonderful, funny, and sexy romantic story about having the courage and strength to break free of the tragedies of the past to let love in again and start a future anew. What more can I say but I simply loved it!

After serving his country, Jack now suffers from PTSD. Along with that nightmare he loses his wife in an awful accident that he feels responsible for. When he meets Margot he wants nothing to do with her or what she is there to do for his family’s farm. Margot pretty much pushes herself off on him and bit by bit he’s drawn to her and her total lack of knowledge regarding life on a farm. But when things start getting heavy Jack fiercely pushes her away.

When I selected this book to purchase as well as the audio, I had no idea it was about a man whose wife had died. I am not a fan of this trope and as soon as I read those words my heart sunk. However, I held out hope that he would recognize that the heroine was actually his soulmate and the love of his life…that never happened.

While Jack doesn’t compare Margot to his deceased wife I still felt that she never measured up to her and that was disappointing. While the writing was excellent and the characters were well developed and alive, the storyline just didn’t work for me.

I love Melanie and her books, so much so that I didn’t even read the synopsis. I knew I would want my greedy little hands on it and devour it as quickly as I could. As I did just that. If you read Man Candy then you might remember Jaime’s friend Margot, the city girl at a crossroads with her whale-shorts wearing boyfriend. Well…this is her story!

Margot needs to get away. Away from her ex. Away from her society life. Away from it all. So when her PR company has a new client which happens to be on a farm, she books a small cottage getaway. It’s the last place her friends and family expected her to go but this was the next stage of the new Margot. The real Margot. She was actually excited to learn more about The Valentine Brothers family business and to help them get their name out there. But after their first meeting she learned there was one brother that didn’t want a city girl know-it-all changing a thing. Looks like she needs to prove to the dirty, rugged, hot as hell farmer that she wasn’t just a spoiled rich city girl that he assumed she was but she was willing to get her hands dirty too. It was time to show this man that she was more than a pretty face. She was a woman on a mission to find happiness in everything she does. And if he is lucky, he could be part of it. Even if it’s just to show her how to collect eggs.

He doesn’t want her here. He didn’t want her here before the first meeting and especially after it. He didn’t like the way his body responded to her. It hasn’t responded that way since he lost his wife three years ago and he doesn’t welcome it now. He doesn’t deserve to feel anything for another woman. And he doesn’t get why it’s her? She isn’t anything like his Steph. She is a city girl who drives a Mercedes and wears pearls. She probably doesn’t even pump her own gas. But there is something there. He isn’t ready for this. For her. She needs to go before he loses control. He was content with his lonely miserable life in his cabin until she showed up. And after getting to know her. The real her. He wants more but will the guilt be too much for him to accept happiness? Why did she have to come here and make him feel? Dammit, she should have left before that first kiss.

I loved Jack and Margot! Their over all chemistry is amazingly sexy and beautiful. Jack doesn’t want to let her in but she knows the exact way to push him without pressuring him. She knows him and he both hates and loves that about her. His farmer Barbie. She impresses him with the way she takes to hard work. He is also surprised by her in many other ways, inside and outside of the barn. She likes to get down and dirty…and he can’t get enough of it. But, really…their story together is beautiful. They are both going through changes in their lives. Real and raw issues that could block their happiness. Letting go is never easy…

Overall…it’s a beautiful story with the perfect mix of emotion, laughter, passion, and hope. I didn’t want it to end!

Quotes:

“If I can be friends with a cocky, know-it-all farmer like you, you can handle a sweet little city girl like me.”

“Christ, you can even make fruit sound sexy.”

“Did you say luxury? That’s like my favorite word.” I fanned myself and whispered, “I’m so turned on right now.”

5 stars
I purchased a copy of the full length steamy novel After We Fall by Melanie Harlow and this review was given freely.
A socially embarrassing public scene with her ex results in PR consultant Margot taking a job for widower and former Army Sergeant Jack Valentini and his brothers organic farm in Michigan but Margot didn’t plan on Jack’s survivor guilt and PTSD or the strong attraction. An opposites attract steamy romance with conflicted characters who find love and a sense of completeness when least expected.

“After We Fall” is a breathtaking kaleidoscope of emotion! That mystifies you, at every magnificent turning point! Propels you with, the fluidity of sheer verbal magic. But clearly this work of was written, with the intent to ravish my heart, my soul and my thought process. Yes, I was shattered, wounded, and at some points. Then I was thankful for the reprieve. I won’t lie, I was an utter hot mess.
But “After We Fall” was so worth the tears and the yelling. Just to able to, embark on a fateful story. One that will transcend into a whole new realm. Is what dreams are made of and romantic hits!